Elizabeth Bathory (Marvel)
Elizabeth Bathory is a villain who appeared in Marvel's horror comics, Dracula Lives - she is a fictionalized version of a very real woman who was infamous as one of history's most sadistic serial-killers and sexual vampire. History Bathory brutally whipped a servant girl after she fled punishment after breaking a plate. During the course of the flogging, Bathory lacerated the girl's skin and was sprayed with her blood. Bathory had her other servants kill the girl, but later that evening, she realized that the spots on her skin that had been touched by the blood had regained their youthful appearance. Realizing she had discovered a means to eternal youth, Bathory began having a number of girls from adjacent lands kidnapped or hired as servants. She had the girls slain and bathed in their blood, eventually regaining her full youth and former beauty. Unbeknownst to Bathory, however, the vampire lord Dracula had observed her actions, seeking to eliminate a competitor for the local blood supply. Dracula set a trap for Bathory, leaving a screaming servant girl tied to a tree. As predicted, the sounds of a potential victim drew the Countess and her servants. Dracula slaughtered her servants and then bit Bathory, intending to make her his slave. However, the bloodbaths had somehow rendered her immune to his control. Realizing she could not stand against the Lord of the Undead, she instead offered an alliance, promising to share her victims with him. She outfitted Castle Csejthe with a coffin filled with Transylvanian soil, which Dracula could sleep in during the daytime hours. Once he was asleep, however, she had the coffin bound in garlic to keep him imprisoned in it. Although pained by the garlic, Dracula managed to turn to mist and escape the rotted floor of the coffin. Rather than simply kill her, Dracula sought to punish her betrayal by seeing her disgraced—her name made a byword for horror. He then located and stole Bathory's journal which detailed the girls from whom she had taken blood. After seeing that her depravity had extended beyond servant girls and into noblewomen, Dracula had portions of the journal sent to King Mathias of Hungary and Count Gyorgy Thurzo, the governor of the province. Elizabeth Bathory was brought to trial and, as per her sentence, walled up within her own castle for the rest of her life. Eventually, Dracula completed his revenge, entering her prison through a small window and draining her blood. The effects of the blood she had bathed in faded as her blood was removed, leaving her once again a withered hag. Powers / Abilities *'Age Regression' (via contact with blood she could apparently regress her own ageing process, it is unknown if this was via mystical or metahuman means) *'Authority '(she was a noble and had great authority over those around her, she was not, however, immune from royal laws and thus could not prevent her own imprisonment) *'Vampiric Immunity' (she was immune to vampires (such as Dracula) but this immunity would not last forever, as she ultimately learned) Trivia *the real life Elizabeth Bathory, believe it or not, is actually FAR worse than the depiction found in Marvel.. she was a highly sadistic criminal and killed upwards of 604 girls, often creating complex tortures that rivalled any modern "torture porn" movie : she was never put to death for her crimes due to her social status but her uncle was sufficiently outraged he had her locked away in the castle for the rest of her days. *Elizabeth Bathory is often erronously called "Countess Dracula" but has no actual relation to Vlad the Impaler, the myth came to be likely because of Elizabeth's habit of sexual vampirism (drinking the blood of her victims) Category:Marvel Villains Category:Comic Book Villains Category:Horror Villains Category:Immortality Seeker Category:Female Category:Fictionalized Category:Paranormal Category:Enigmatic